Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 04 - Trash Out (43 page)

Carrie didn’t move away until the
female
EMT gently pushed her aside.  She and her partner knelt over Mark. 
They both shook their heads. 

“Next of kin?”

The EMT’s took Mark’s phone and Mark’s body and loaded
both
into the ambulance. They thankfully switched off the rolling red light. 

Carrie looked at her ruined dress and smiled ruefully.  “I
don’t
remember reading anything in Brides Magazine about
how to remove
blood
from a wedding
dress.”    

“
At least i
t’s not as tacky as a money dance.” 
Ben
joined us, glanced at me, but knew who needed
comforting
right
this
minute. “And where is our
latest
murderer?”

“My sisters too
k her to the office. The security should already be here
.”  Patrick dragged his hands through his hair, in a
fine imitation o
f Ben’s gesture of frustration.
His jacket was ruined
,
his party was ruined
.  Was his marriage
,
only
  forty
minutes
old,
ruined as well?

“She is insane
,
” Patrick explained unnecessarily. “It’s the reason Kathleen and Claire never married, certainly never will have children. And anytime we did try to marry
, Kimberly
managed to figure it out and show up
, all three of us
eventually just
gave up
.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”  Carrie
brushed her hands on her dress and approached her new husband.

“That I have a crazy sister who
haunts
my dreams and if she can, when she can, ruin my life?  I don’t think so.  She almost killed her
fiancé
once, and now this.”

“He was her
fiancé
too?”  I cried.

“Too? You were engaged to that person?”  Patrick couldn’t keep the incredulous look from his face and I really didn’t blame him.

“Yes,” I admitted.  “He left me at the altar.”

I took a deep breath. As insane as poor
K
imberly was
- she
had done what I only
fantasized
doing.  I respected that.

On cue because it’s just one of those days, Claire limped from the office, even in the dim light I saw that a bruise was emerging on her white cheek.

“She got away
,
”
her voice was toneless
. 

Patrick looked
uncertainly at Carrie, who stood stock still, her white dress smeared with Mark’s blood.

“Where?”
h
e started.  Ben glanced up either because he heard something, or because he’s
prescient
.  He
mutely
pointed to something over our heads.

“Patrick!”   Kimber
l
y swayed on the
notoriously unstable
catwalk
that now
hovered
over
cold, bare
cement.

“It’s not steady!”  I called up. 

“I know
,
”
she was strangely
complacent
, which made her all the more frightening
.

“Pat
,
” she called again.  “I want to be with him.”

“Sure baby,
I’ll take you to him,
we’ll take a trip in my car, you like my car remember?”

“Is it that pretty
red
one?” 

“Yes honey.”  Patrick stepped closer
keeping his eyes on
his sister
.  Ben had already moved to the back of the warehouse, I could hear his
weighted
footfall on the steel steps of the ladder.  He wasn’t a dainty
guy;
cat
burglar
would
never grace his
resume
,
no matter how
clever
he was
, but at least he was doing something.  The rest of us could only stand and watch
.

“Yes baby, now come down so you can go for a ride in the car.”

“No, I want to see him right now.”  She shook her
head;
her long hair flew around her face like the old pictures of
M
edusa.

“Her! Are you taking her with you?”  Kimberly suddenly
focused
on me.  Me?  I’m just standing here watching
waiting for the d
eus
ex
m
achin
a
to arrive just in time
and clear everything up
.
Don’t mind me, I’m just the audience.

Claire
and Kathleen gasped and moved to
shield
me.  “No, no, Patrick will only take you, there’s only room for two in his car
,
Kimberly,
you
know that.” 

She glared at me, her tangled hair fell around her shoulders like snakes,
her
dress was ripped and covered in as much blood as Carrie’s.  Carrie, by the way, had strategically shrunk into the shadows
. She
hid next to the white
T-
bins and folded
canvasses;
her dress blended nicely with the tarps and gallon buckets.  But I knew from experience that she would not stay safe
,
nor would she stay put
. 

Ben took another step.

Carrie
clearly couldn’t stand it.  She began to carefully
cre
e
p from the shadows, heading for Patrick, but Patrick did not hear the rustle of satin, his
gaze
remained
trained on Kimber
l
y.
Carrie
finally
stood
right
behind him
,
but
not touching him.

“Come down and ride in my car.”  Patrick
cajoled
. His voice cracked
,
“
y
ou know you want to, Kimberly.
”
He said her name in a
singsong
voice, one that seemed to relax her a little more.  She glanced down at the bare floor. She may survive a fall, but she
wouldn’t survive a straight dive, the floor was
as unyielding
as submerged river rocks.  

“I want to be with Mark.” 
Her voice was weak and uncertain
. Ben stepped forward, one foot balanced on the ladder, one on the slender scaffolding. 
Kimberly
also
took another step.
Her foot hovered over the
empty
air
,
right over Patrick’s head
. With
no warning
,
she stepped out and
plunged
off the catwalk
head first
. Patrick
had no time to open his arms or
position himself to catch her. She was just inches too far away
.
But in that split second between her thoughts and her action, Patrick sensed what his sister would do.  He
grabbed
his
bride
and jerked her
against
him
hiding her
head against his chest, covering her ears.

Kimberly fell hard.
She connected with the floor in a terrible, sickening sound, sad
and horrible
in its finality. I heard
Carrie’s intake
of
breath that
seemed louder than the Furies
’ screams
. I opened my mouth expecting a scream, but like my worst nightmare, I had no voice
.
I stood as still
and empty
as the indifferent
wine casks.

It was so silent inside I could hear Patrick
murmur
into Carrie’s hair. “For better or worse?” 
The noise from the party outside
slowly e
ncroached, loud and boisterous.

Carrie lifted her beautiful tear stained face
. It was
devoid of everything but a trace o
f
eyeliner
because she had effectively
transferred
all her carefully applied make up
to Patrick’s once white shirt.  

“You poor man.” She reached up to stroke his face.  “You poor man, all these years hiding her, taking care of her.”

“The mad woman in the attic
,
” I whispered.  I was suddenly, completely exhausted.  I
wanted to
sink to the floor but it was cold and damp.  Ben
clambered
down the metal ladder, his
footsteps
echoing in the big warehouse.  The Furies approached the body, but he
immediately
held them back and quickly
snapped up a tarp and tossed it over
Kimberly’s inert form.

I half expected him to comfort the sisters, but
he
patted each woman on the arm and strode to me in two big steps.   Now it was my turn to bury my head in the
bosom
of a loved one.  It felt good. I sighed and he
gingerly stroked
my stiff hair.

“Not the ending we though
t
,
”
h
e said simply.

Carrie heard him and pulled away from Patrick.  “We are all in this together.  But especially me and Patrick.”  She took his hand and gently led him to the door of the warehouse.  She pulled open the door and marched into the golden afternoon
sun that
surrounded their
silhouettes like
a halo
.
I blinked at the light and watched her disappear into the
waiting
crowd.

“There’s been an accident
,
”
h
er
voice r
a
ng out
clear and confident
.   “Can someone please call 911
and ask them to come
back
?
T
he
re is, unfortunately, no need to give directions.
Patrick and I have
to go now, thank you all for coming.”

There was a collective gasp, either from their appearance,
(
it’s not often the bride and groom end up looking like the final
e
of
Z
ombie
N
ights
)
,
or from the screaming from the warehouse
,
o
r from the announcement that an ambulance was needed
,
again
.

The furies
held hands and huddled over
the body
.
Ben and I were effectively alone.

“There’s a back way
,
”
Ben
whispered
. 

Kathleen heard him and lifted her head. She did not release her sister’s hands.   She took us in
with a glance
and nodded. 

Ben pulled me to the back of the warehouse and through the door that led
to the crush pad.
The
large stemmer
/
crusher glistened in the late afternoon sun. 

“I shouldn’t really just leave without saying good bye
,
” I protested, channeling my mother.

“Our mothers can say good by
.
It will give them
the satisfaction of both being angry with us
while performing the
socially correct thing.  Right now, we are doing what is right for us.”
He tugged at my hand and led me
around
back. His truck was
parked
up
against the vines in
splendid
isolation.
  The leaves left on the rows of vines danced in the
low
sun. Ben nudged the leaves aside and helped me in.